Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 12, 13 July 1888, Page 9

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.) By an exceedingly narrow shave thp Government escaped defeat over the Bill providii g for Colonel King-Harman's salary as "bottlewasher "to Mr. Balfour in the Irish office. Eight votes barely saved the Ministry from a posit\ou which would leave at least ODe Member of it— to whit, the C >ief Secretary — no alternative but to throw up the spon re. Although Mr. Parnell had issued an urgent whip, many Members of the Irish party were absent. Had but a bare third of the absentees been in their places, the Bill must have been thrown out. To miessuch a triumph, and at such a time, was a terrible mtschance borne of the absentees were not in a pjaiiion to come — dangerously ill or confined in gaol. But there were plenty besides to make Mr. Balfour's place too hot to hold him ; and it is to be earnestly hoped that should such another glorious opportunity arise the mistake may not occur again. Cold comfort for the coercionists who made so great a cackle over the Hartington and Goschen Avatar was the result of the election in Dublin. High hopes were entertained about the result of that event, Somehow the Unionists had persuaded themselves into the belief that their cause had made great advance by reason of the visit of the false Liberal chiefs. Some were so fatuous as to flatter themselves that there was a possibility of Mr. Sexton's getting in ; while the general body, who were not altogether victims of such pelf -deception, believed that there must at all events be a great reduction of the Nationalist vote. This calculation was based upon the knowledge that Mr. Dickson was at some disadvantage as compared with the late Dr. Gray, as well as the well-known fast that several hundred Nationalist votes were lost, through some mishap, at the last revision. The result has shown that the Unionists had been all along living in a fool's paradise. Ur. Dickson has triumphed over his opponent by the magnificent majority of 1,887 votes. Taking all the facts into consideration, it must be looked upon as a splendid victory, and a crushing retort upon the cock-a-whoop Unionists. There was only one branch, so far as we know, in the whole of Ireland iv which practical effect was attempted to be given to the rescript. The result was certainly not encouraging to imitators. The Very Rev. M. J. Murphy has — alas ! that it should be so — succeeded the Very Rev. Dr. Kwanagh in Kildare. The m.mtlv of the zealous priest aud patriot fiiß uneasily on the shoulders of the Rev. Mr. Murphy. Tbe moment the rescript was publishe tin the new-papers, without waiting even for his bishop to receive it, the rev. gentleman prepared a silly letter of abject submission for adoption by the League. He was on his way to Home, and, no doubt, he thought the resolution would help to make him welcome there. The Plan of Campntrn, which has never been heard of in his county, was to be abandoned by the peasants of the South and West, for whom it is the sole protect on from absolute ruin. Evictions and land-grabbing were to be encouraged, and the rack-renter, the evictor, and the l^nd -grabber, the crowbar brigade and the evicted tenants were all to be united in the bonds of Christian chanty by the resolution of the rev. gentleman. The last meeting of the League at the courthouse, Kildare, showed that he reckoned without his host. Already the Coercionists are beginning to reaUse they will have to pay dear for the aid of the foreign ally they invoked. The Radicals of England did not much relish government of Ireland by coercion. They relish still le.ss the government by coercion and the Inquisition combined. Balfour on his own bottom was a pitiful spectacle enough, but Bdlfour beaten and broten after all his silly or spiteful devices — the author of " Philosophic Doubt," the second and greater Cromwell, whining to Rome for help in the work of Coercion, is the most pitiful spectacle it is possible to conceive. It is sufficiently comical to find the ooercionists who played the No- Popery card so freely — who were never tired;of declaring that Home Rule <mri Rome Rule were identical — now striving night and morn to establish Rome Rule as the very antithesis of Home Rule in Ireland. The intolerant and rancorous triumph with which the English Catholics are brandishing the Inquisition Rescript knows no b mnds. To give an instance. In one diocese in London on Sunday, May 13, the Bishop, who was once a chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, had sermons preached upon the subject at last Mass at several of the churches. That at Clapham was a good sample. The preacher was a Father Bridgett. Irsh iniquity, as illustrated in the Plan of Campaign, furnished him with a theme which evidently sot in eruption all the slumbering volcanoes of his soul. One mused, if the same amount of fire and zeal were devoted to the apostleship of holy chanty, Father Bridgett should prove an irresistible missionary. He was more papistical than the Pope. He did not think tne Inquisition had gone far enough. " For my part," he screamed, " I would excommunicate anyone who, after this Rescript, dared to take part in the Plan of Campaign or boycotting." And in his exultation he seemed to see with holy satisfaction the soul of this wicked brother already within the naming jaws of hell — banished, cursed, anathematised, the culprit-victim of the Church's awful boycotting decree. Above his head was a figure of the Church's Founder hanging on the tree upon which He died for love of all His brethren. Behind him was the tabernacle, where the Miracle of Love and Mercy had just been consummated. Happily the Inquisition is — as yet — more merciful than Father Eridgett. Can one fathom the malevolent insolence of this— this ex-chap-lain of the DuVe of Norfolk setting his English priests to preach such Bermons in English churches to English congregations ? No, not quite to English congregaiions, ana herein lies the wornt poison of the sting. At Clapham, as at most English Catholic churches, the bulk of the congregation is either Irish or of Int-h blood. The humble folk in the back-ground and in the side aisles certainly. A sprinkling of superior English or forsworn Irish adorn the front seats in silk and broadcloth. It is for the benefit of theße that Irish depravity is held up to scorn amd denunciation, that Irish patriots

are Anathematised, that tke sentiments of those humble Irish in the background are lacerated, spat upon, trampled oa One has only to know the typical English Catholic to understand Bloody Mary fM believe in Foxe's Book of Martyrs . In reality thesa people aft Met Koman Catholics at all. They are Norfolk Catholic* if ym like, ex English Catholics, or Bloody Mary Catholics. Just as m IrUk Orange ma u may be said to be a Nationalist tamed wrong-tide eat* so an English Citholic may be said to bja Puritan tara«d wrong-tide out. The Puritan was respectable and logical. He believed in predestination. He believed he was the Lord's elect, and that he ltd a right to hew in pieces a'l the Lord's enemies. Because k« could opt practice his religion with a free band at home, he evifrated to a wild virgin colony in wbich he established a country at kit own, where in due time he burned witches and allowed bo aerttics to cross itd borders. The typical rabid English Catholics believe in, their hearts that all who are not of them will be damned, fnd, what is worse, they wish them damned. Bat they b*»e nor Ihe courage to cay s i They call themselves by the name of the religio.i which is all tolerance and all mercy. If tbej had their way to-morrow tkey would give over Catholic Ireland to fire and sword as a horetic coontry, and they would set up the stakes again in Smithfield. It if these people, led on by the Duke of Norfolk's ez-chaplain, who axe now exploiting the Papal Rescript against the Plan of Campaign, m if it were another Bull of Adrian, handing them over Ireland for conquest and conversion. What a comment this is upon Ike whole basU ness. Under the civilising influence of sublimated Toryism we are steadily going back to barbaric methods. This may sound paradoxical, but it is the fact all the same. For instance, the battering-ram. This archaic military engine, disentomked from the mould of ages long anterior to the period of Edward 111., is now a weekly recurrent resurrection in agrarian struggles. It played a prominent part last week in some evictions in Tipperary, at a place called Modeshill, where a number of tenants had rebelled against tb« tyranny of the a°;ent, a fellow-farmer named Hanly. The landlord of the place is a Mr. Michael Cormack. A large evicting force, under the command of Colonel Carew, R.M., and County- Inspector Stephens, directed the operations. A few tenants were cleared out on the first day, and there was but one notable incident. It was at the house of Martin Morrissy, a very old man, and a sub-trnaut of Mr. O'Keeffe's. The door of his house wa9 forced open without difficulty, and the old man was put out. He declared that he had built the bouse himself at the coat of £40. Mr. H tnly said that he did not want any rent from him, but would allow him back as a caretaker. The old man replied witb great spirit — " There is no fear I will take care "f it for you." This p ucky reply was loudly applauded by the people. Next day the battering-ram was brought into play. The house of Edmund Cody — a ueat cottage — whicb was found to be strongly barricaded, was attacked, and sooa a large hole was made in the wall. The Emergency gang — at the head of whom, it is stated, worked Mr, Robert Power, sou of Mr, Richard Power, J.P., of Ballydavid, and a brother of Mr. Arnold Power, solicitor — men swarmed into the house and ejected the tenant and his father, a feeble octogenarian, dome other tenants were evicted before the "ram" was again called into play, and at several points there were nanow escapes from violent collisions betweta the people and the police. The " ram " was then moved off to the house of a tenant named Patrick Tobin. After much trouble a breach was effected, and the tenant and a neighbour who had helped him to " hold the fort," Michael Neary, came out cheering for " The Plau." And here is the Roman correspond-nt of the jPimes, the paper which coined the phrase, "surpliced ruffians,' laying down the law about the Decree with the air of a professor of theology. " The Decree begins with ' atrum Meat,' " it ends so-and-so. Itt real meaning is so-and-so. The reasons are no part of the Decree. Their soundness or unsoundness has nothing to say with the matter, '■If Mr. Parnell's new Plan," we are iold, ' is within the limits of morality, as recognised by th^> Christian chnrch of all sects, it will not be condemned by the Pope ; but as sure aa it violates justice and morality it will go under tne ban with the old one, and on the same grounds." Things have come to a pretty pass, surely, when we have to be lectured on Christian morality and Catholic theology by the correspondents of the Times, and when the " thunders of the Vatican " are content to play a sort of second fiddle to the thunders of Printing House square. The following is the latest cipher despatch that has fallen into our hands : "To Inspector-General, R.1.C., Castle. Plan of Campaign on Masseerene estate not quite collapsed, but breaking «p, — D.T, Drogheda, May 4." " Not quite." Well, we should say not. This is the estate for the particalar benefit of which Mr. Ross of Bladensburg, has managed to get the Inquisition to issue their Rescript. It will be a rather poor result for all his trouble if by-and-b/ the only answer he can give to the inquiry of Cardinal Monaco, as to whether the Rescript has succeded in breaking down the Plan of Campaign on his brother-in-law's estate, is the answer of " D. T. ( Drogheda," " not quite." And this is the only answer, with the blessing of God, he will be able to give. So much for the pretence of the Government that the Ooeroion Act was not to be used against combination or political opponent*, but to put down crime. There is no crime in Louth, nor has there been any for years. The monotonous presentations of white gloves to the judge is evidence of that. But there is a combination against a dissipated and broken-down rack-renter ; and there political opponentg galore. This cipher telegram throws a flood of light upon the motives and secret doings of the Government and the Castle gang. Ihe Massereene tenantry now see with what lynx-eyed vigilance their every move is watched from Dublin Castle, and they will be ab e to estimate the degree of joy which any show of weakness on their part would bring to the hearts of the amiable persons who barrow in that famous (ortress, and mole- like, control the destinies of a whole nation. if the report as to the identity of the second Mr. Power mentioned in a foregoing paragraph be correct, the facts are not without some food for tha moralist. Mr. Arnold Power is, w« believe, brother to Mr, Frank Power, wko ia anppeaed to bare perished ia the Soudan

along with General Gordon, and the Mr Power here referred to is Stated to be a brother of Mr. Arnold Power. We do not know whether this is really the case or not, bat if it be, there is something in the facts for the modern Tymon, or anybody less embittered than a Tymon, for that matter, to ponder over. Mr. Frank Power, it is well known to many who remember hint in Dublin, was not particularly welcomed at home in the years immtdiaely proceding his departure from Ireland. He was left to shift for himself, and bis straits were often great. When his death was announced the family did not hesitate to take all tbe kidos attaching to his career in the Soudan, and tbe monetary solatium for his loss granted by the Government. Mr. Frank Power, if alive, would hardly feel pride in the conduct of the bretbrea who have profited so far as (key could by his thirst for adventure. He was an amiable fellow, and while unpretentious in the luatter of nationality and politics, as a man educated abroad might be somewhat excused for being, he was quite incapable of doing anything which would biing himself into s«ch disagreeable prominence as the brothers whose names now come before the public. Soldiers are now by law entitled to take men's parts ia [politics, and since they *re given the privilege of voting at elections it cannot be wondered at that they display their political proclivities publicly like other men. It is a little \ odd, however, to hear that a detachment of the Wiltshire Regiment —we presume, for the most part Englishmen — should have acted as they are reported to have acted at Boyle on Saturday last. The men were leaving tbe town for some other garrison, and as they mev«d off someone called for cheers for Mr. Parnell, and they responded to the invitation with great heartiness. A demonstration of a somewhat different character took place a couple of days back at tbe muster of the Clare Artillery Militia. Colonel O'Callaghan, of Bodyke notoriety, is the commander of that corps, and the Cork Herald states that on parade the men exhibited their sentiments towards aim and hia doings by gmaniug him with all their power, and that they also Cheered for William O'Brieo with great vehemence. Furthermore, it is stated, the men have got up a memorial to the War office showing reasons for objecting to serve under such a commander. These are incidents of the present struggle which cannot well be overlooked. No wise Government could possibly ignore their significance. Tom Moroney is nuw eighteen months in gaol for refusing to betray bis comrades to Judge Boyde. The savage sentence is actually without precedent. Never in the history of the law in this country or in Englani has there been an instance of a man getting eighteen months' imprisonment for a mere technical contempt of court. He has been convicted and sentenced without evidence or trial, jury or verdict, Tom Bforoney's crime was, in the memorable words of Bemovable Hamilton, " taking part in the Plan of Campaign,' and refusing to turn informer on his Campaigners. Judge Boyd had boasted that he would put down the Plan, and he is wreaking a cowardly vengeance on brave old Tom Moroney for his ignominious failure, to which the sturdy old Campaigner so largely contributed. If Tom Moroney had picked a pocket be would have been out of prison a year ago. If be had merely kicked his wife to death he would have been out of prison at least six months ago. His crime vtas that he had been honest and true and leal to his comrades in the hour of danger, and for this crime be must die in gaol if priest-hunting Boyd had his way. What zealous friends can do to mitigate the rigour of his imprisonment has been done. A visiting committee has been formed of ladies and gentlemen, who each day in turn bring to the prisoner a glimpse of the outer world from whicb he has been so long closed in. To the outer world it is comforting to know that the staunch old hero is in no wise cowed by the trying ordeal to which he has been subjected. It is saddening in the extreme to read of the continued flight of the people from this miserable misgoverned land. The emigration returns are becoming positively appalling. Our hardy population, golden boys and girlß in more senses than one, still fly from it in thousands, as though a physical plague were over the land as well as the blighting pestilence of a rule whbh looks upon the Irish Celts as vermin. Last week (ending May 12) the emigration of Irish-born people from Queecstown amounted to 2,032 ; ami a still larger figure was anticipated for this week (ending May 19), as greit numbers have been booked for the outgoing steamers. Most of the emigrants were hale and handsome young men and women, from Galway, Clare, Kerry, Limerick, and other western counties — for the most pait Celts, of couise. Is there no means of stopping this horrible hemorrhage f If it goes on for another decade or two there cannot be any great difficulty in settling the Irish question according to the taste of the Times and the Tory Government. So used are we now to the violation of canona of decency in the administration of what is called law, that there is no longer any faculty for surprise within us. We can only feel sickened at the outrageous pranks before high heaven that the shameless mercenaries who pollute the magisterial bench are now daily playing. Yet it is impossible not to read without some touch of dulled emotion of the exhibition of moral turpitude which took place at Blarney on Monday, May 14. One of the latest batch of Removables, a Mr. Caddell, who has graduated in the militia presided there at petty Sessions, and adjudicated on a case in which an Emergencyman named Felix McCarthy was charged with a felonious offence. This Emergencyman is, or was, in the employment of the Cork Defence Union, and presumably while engaged in the service of these landlords he fired a revolver at a carman named Cogan. McCarthy kad hired Cogan to drive him to Blarney at a cost of 4s 6d. When the contract was fulfilled tbe carman and his fare stopped at a house. The carman demanded the money due. McCarthy tendered half-a-crown, and offered a locket as a pledge for the remainder, telling the carman to take the trinket to the Cork Defence Union and that he would get money for it. The carman objected to such a mode of settling the debt, and thereupon the Emergency man, swearing " By G 1 I'll pay you," fired his revolver at the driver, the bullet lodging in the wall of the i ouse. The only defence was that both carman and Emergencyrpan were drunk at the time of the occunence. The plea, which does not count for much whenever oidinary crinio is linkeu with it, was quite enough excuse for the Blarney bench. loforma-

tions were refused on the ground that no " intent " had been proved despite the fact that the Emergencyman himself, by his exclamation before firing the shot, had disclosed hit intent. It is right to chronicle the fact that the J.P.'a who assisted the militia officer Caddell to come to this flagitious decision were Messrs, B. U. P. Townsend, B. Pratt, and N. Mahony. When we recall the foot that men haro beem sentenced to fifteen and twenty yearu'^penal servitude for simiUr offences the gross and barefaced defiance of law and justice in this case almost makes one blush that he wears the same human shape as the persons who have perpetrated it.